PvP/Tactics
Here you will find a number of common PvP tactics and appropriate counters for each. Cannon Tower Assault ;Overview :Most decks that have any Frost at all will play Cannon Towers. The key to this strategy is the use of Frost Building Support Cards to keep the tower alive once it is built. :However, while under construction buildings take 3x the damage and can't be buffed with Glacier Shell or Kobold Trick, so generally they must be destroyed during this time. Thus, spotting the construction and reacting to it early is crucial. Unfortunately, killing the tower while under construction is harder than it might seem because any creatures used to counter with will usually be locked down with Crowd Control Cards. :If the enemy successfully gets a tower up it can be extremely hard to take down, and thus counterattacking their Wells/Orbs may be your best option. They will have probably spent a lot of power on crowd control and have at least 70 power bound to the tower itself. Trying to keep both the tower and their wells/orbs alive may cause them to split their building buffs and give you an opportunity to take down one or the other. If you have Sunstriders or Suppression in your deck, it will be extremely effective to disable the tower until you manage to destroy it. ;Combo :Cannon Tower, Glacier Shell and/or Kobold Trick (optional: Construction Hut, Crowd Control Cards) ;Counters *Eruption - Can destroy any building early in its construction, but is only cost effective if it also does damage to the enemy unit or hits two buildings at once. *Shadow Mage or Nox Trooper - Best to have two on hand before construction starts and far enough apart that they can't both be CC'd. *Skyfire Drake *War Eagle *Sunstriders ability or Suppression Drakes on Drugs ;Overview :If your opponent has both Fire and Shadow Orbs at T2, you can expect that they will be playing Buffed Skyfire Drakes. For some decks, pure Fire in particular, this can be an extremely difficult to counter tactic. ;Combo :Skyfire Drake, Ravage, and Unholy Power ;Counters *Shadow Mages and/or Darkelf Assassins *Defenders and Coldsnap *Parasite Swarm *Parasite and Crowd Control *Skyfire Drake and Eruption - One hit followed by a quick eruption will kill a ravaged drake, resulting in their ravage being wasted (if no unholy power) Immortal Ashbone Pyro ;Overview :Ashbone Pyros (upgraded to at least upgrade 2) are a very effective method to end a game once it reaches T3. Because they do siege damage, they are much better against buildings (and Wells and Orbs) than against units, so if you can, you should try to intercept them on the way to your base. You will have an easier time killing them if they are not doing damage to a structure. :The main problem with them is their Lifeleach ability - the more damage they do, the more they will heal themselves. That is also why Unholy Power is so strong on them. It increases the damage they do while decreasing the damage they take, both effects work to magnify the Lifeleach ability. :A single Ashbone isn't generally that hard to kill; however, if there is an Ashbone attacking each of your Orbs you are generally unable to cost effectively counter they all. ;Combo :Ashbone Pyro and Unholy Power (optional: Life Weaving, Home Soil (does not stack with Unholy Power!), and to keep them alive when CC'd: Ravage or Surge of Light) ;Counters *Crowd Control - Use to wait out buffs and/or let them die by their Instability (they lose life while not in fight). **Ensnaring Roots - Use while out of range of your base. **Curse of Oink **Coldsnap **Creeping Paralysis *Home Soil, Coldsnap, and (Lyrish Knights or Silverwind Lancers) *Fallen Skyelf and (Nightcrawlers, Cultist Master, or Shadow Insects) *Wrathgazer *Church of Negation *Fathom Lord *Mark of the Keeper *Drones Mortar Tower Bombardment ;Overview :Fire T1 will often come to rush your starting base (or the middle of the map) with Mortar Towers. One mortar Tower alone can be easily killed if you get units in melee range, because it has a deadzone where it can't fire. So often, two mortar towers are built so they cover each other. This can be especially difficult to counter at T1. Additionally, Mortar Towers are often built above or below a cliff, so you cannot easily reach them with ground units. Even when you can reach the Mortar with ground units, it will usually be protected by Mines. ;Combo :Mortar Tower (optional: Mine, Glacier Shell, Kobold Trick) ;Counters *Eruption - Kill them before they are built. Eruption does mean you spend more energy, but if possibly damage their ground unit along with the Mortar. *Nox Trooper - Ability can kill Mortar under construction so long as you can get in range. *Phase Tower - Teleport inside the Mortar's deadzone and you will be save from the Mortar's fire. *Flying Cards - They can reach the Mortar even when behind cliffs, and Mortar can only attack ground. **Shadow Phoenix - Two Phoenixes can kill grouped Mortars very effectively. Though generally not cost effective less than three Mortars, unless there are other enemy entities around. *Glacier Shell and Card:Kobold Trick - Can buy you time to kill the Mortar before it destroys too much. It is best to focus on saving only one well if more than one are attacked, you probably won't be able to save more than one and can lose all if you divide your spells. Mountaineer's Rampage ;Overview :In general there are two separate Mountaineer tactics. There are those decks that are Nature/Frost and those that are Fire/Frost. Each such deck plays very differently and there are differences in the counter for each. Nature/Frost ;Overview :The goal of the Nature/Frost build is to use Crowd Control to lock down the enemy while either doing damage directly with the Mountaineer or as a distraction while Cannon Towers are being built. You will often see Ice Barriers and Home Soil being used. Once two Mountaineers are on the field they can take down a Well or Orb quite quickly. ;Combo :Mountaineer, Home Soil, Surge of Light, and Crowd Control Cards. With an optional expansion into a Cannon Tower Assault. ;Counters *Parasite Swarm *Defenders *Phalanx *Shadow Mages and Motivate - You will need at least four Mages, wait until shield is down. *Nox Troopers - Summon 4-5 and spread them out. Use Overload whenever the shield is down, but on only one Nox at a time. *Fire Stalker and Ensnaring Roots *Rippers - The Mountaineer will have a hard time killing Rippers, but watch out for Lyrish Knights. *Air-to-Ground Cards **War Eagle **Skyfire Drake Fire/Frost ;Overview :The goal of the Fire/Frost build is to use the Mountaineer as a lure for Mines or to run interference for Mortar Towers. Generally, the Mountaineer won't be the card that is actually destroying things. :Of the two builds, the Fire/Frost build is the more difficult to counter. ;Combo :Mountaineer, Mine, Mortar Tower, and Ravage. ;Counters *Parasite Swarm *Defenders *Shadow Mages and Motivate - You will need at least four Mages, wait until shield is down. *Fire Stalker and Ensnaring Roots *Air-to-Ground Cards **War Eagle **Skyfire Drake Wildfire Laming ;Overview :The use of Wildfire on Wells/Orbs is considered overpowered by the vast majority of players. Two casts of the upgraded spell are enough to kill wells when told not to move. It is especially bad on maps like Yrmia, Elyon and Uro, where the two starting wells and monument can all be covered with a wildfire cast. Simai and Lajesh are somewhat less in danger, but there you still have two starting wells in range. Haladur and Wazhai are safe from wildfire abuse (unless you build Wells/Orbs next to each other - but you don't start with Wells like that) :In order to cast Wildfire needs a ground unit near your base. Ravage is often used to keep that unit alive while Wildfire is spammed on your base. It can sometimes be an effective counter to prevent this unit from getting near your base. ;Combo *Wildfire (often combined with Scythe Fiends and Ravage) ;Counters :There are no "real" counters. However, against unskilled wildfire users: *Skyelf Templar - Can be very helpful. Use its ability on the wells to save them from destruction. Switch the target soon enough so you save all your wells. You'll still need to kill the enemy ground unit so you don't get overwhelmed, because one Templar can't keep up with wildfire every 10 seconds. *Buffed Skyfire Drakes - Can be used to kill enemy units before they reach your base and put pressure on your opponent. Pure Fire has no real counter for buffed Drakes. *Never build two wells next to each other when you have to fear wildfire. (i.e. when you see two Fire Orbs) *If you lose a well, don't try to rebuild it at the same spot. Instead build a well at some other place which will also give you more map control. See Also *Abbreviation & Notation *ELO Ranking Systems *PvE *PvP **PvP - Tips & Tricks *Replays *Void Power Category:Guides Category:PvP